


The Ghost of Old HQ

by TwistedK



Series: Random Drabbles [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-03-17
Packaged: 2018-03-18 09:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3564311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwistedK/pseuds/TwistedK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a ghost playing pranks on the Survey Corps. Erwin's had enough of their shit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ghost of Old HQ

**Author's Note:**

> Based on [Noeros](http://noeros.tumblr.com/)'s headcanon: Levi sleepwalks. One night he walks out his room and into Erwin's bed.

There are rumors of a ghost roaming the halls of the castle at night. At first, the new recruits were convinced it was the squad leaders’ version of mild hazing, scaring them into sleep deprivation or just for the hell of it. After all, there are far more frightening things than some ghost walking the halls of an old abandoned castle in the dead of the night. Like Titans, for example.

But one night, Eren wakes up to half the other boys in the room sitting on their beds, still and alert. He stills, too, and then hears it.

There’s footsteps outside. Step, step, and a scraping sound. Is that…a broom? Then again. Step, step, sweep. Pause. It’s definitely the soft scrape of bristles against the stone floor. There is a barely audible gasp in the room when the steps stop right front of the bedroom door. Sweep. Sweep. Then a loud clatter of the broom thrown on the ground.

No one goes back to sleep the night.

The next day, Armin tries to convince them that it was probably a stray cat that’s gotten in the building, playing around with items they had laying around. He pales when they open the door and find five brooms laying on the floor, all lined up perfectly. Jean proposes telling Squad Leader Hange and Mike at breakfast.

They don’t get the chance to tell the squad leaders because the Commander clears his throat before breakfast starts, clearly exhausted, and calls for everyone’s attention in the mess hall.

"It has come to my attention that the cleaning supplies from the second floor have been taken out of the closets last night," he says. "And as you may have seen this morning, they have been arranged in the hallways in a way that can endanger personnel should an emergency require the use of these hallways."

Eren swallows dry.

"We do not tolerate pranking or any other foolish activities here in the Survey Corps," the commander continues, now eyeing the table of fresh recruits who look less than fresh from the lack of sleep and abundance of fear. "And we certainly do not fear ghosts when we are well-equipped to combat more dangerous threats to humanity."

* * *

The following week, Hange and Mike are called to the Commander’s office, both dark and lavender under the eyes. Levi is already there, lounging on Erwin’s couch with a cup of tea, looking well-rested. More well-rested than usual.

"I thought this recruit problem would have been resolved by now," Erwin says, pinching the bridge of his nose more to keep himself awake than out of frustration.

"I think it could be a ghost!" Hange whines. "As scientifically unsound as that is. We need to prove that this is a recruit first before we can say it’s not a ghost."

Levi snorts. “Could be a ghost. How else would they know how fucking filthy you are? Unless you’re letting kids into your room. Last I heard the ghost left a mop and a wash bucket on your doorstep.”

Hange hangs their head.

"That doesn’t explain the cups," Erwin says, pinching the bridge of his nose again. Behind his hand, a smirk threatens to pull at his lips. "I couldn’t get out of my quarters this morning. This ghost had barricaded me in with a wall built of every cup we own in this castle."

Whoever this recruit is, they’re getting more elaborate. And stealthy. No one can catch this ghost as they pad around at night without a sound and no one wanted to stay on patrol for it. A ghost is a ghost, the recruits have said. Mike had been a victim, too. He woke up that morning with all of Nanaba’s laundry neatly folded on his doorstep. Levi was still tiptoeing around brooms lined up on the hallway of his quarters. The prankster is sending a message.

"Didn’t smell like a ghost to me," Mike said plainly. He and Erwin exchange a look.

"We will patrol tonight," Erwin declares.

"Count me out," Levi says. "Just tell me which punk I need to assign to clean Hange’s lab and room for punishment for this nonsense."

* * *

Hange falls asleep on a chair outside their room within an hour of their patrol. Eren and Jean had retreated to their room, ears against the door, as soon as they hear the familiar _step, step, sweep_ from down the hallway. Erwin hears it, too, and stands in the middle of the hallway in a wide stance, ready to reprimand this prankster who kept everyone up and high strung for the past couple of weeks.

Then from down the hallway, an unmistakable figure emerges in a large white standard-issue shirt and a broom in hand. There’s the infamous _step, step, sweep_ that the recruits whisper about in hushed, stuttering voices. The figure takes two steps and drags the broom beside him without any real effort to clean. The figure stops by a snoring Hange and sweeps at their feet then starts towards the end of the hallways again, to where Erwin stands, jaw slacked open.

_It’s Levi._

Erwin sees Mike over Levi’s shoulder following him in quick, quiet steps, reaching out to the smaller man’s shoulder. Erwin raises a hand to him, prompting him to stop, and watches Levi again.

"I’m…not sure what’s…" Erwin whispers to Mike who had approached him.

They both watch Levi sweep at Erwin’s doorstep more deliberately this time. Erwin cautiously comes closer to Levi, noticing that he was barefoot and the shirt he wears is one of Erwin’s. He knows because he can see the dark blot of ink on the cuff that drapes over Levi’s fingers. He leans down to peer at Levi’s face.

Blank. Eyes open just a fraction.

"Levi?" The man doesn’t respond and just keeps sweeping.

Mike shrugs at him upon meeting his relieved expression. “All yours now, Commander.”

Levi is still sweeping by the time Mike disappears into the dark end of the hallway and Erwin remembers an old wives’ tale about sleepwalkers. They are not to be woken up or else they’ll wake into a terrifying state of sleep paralysis. But Levi’s mechanical sweeping, barefoot in his unwashed shirt stirs something in his chest and he feels his heart fill with fondness.

"Oh, Levi," he whispers as he opens the door to his quarters, watching intently as Levi sweeps into his room without invitation.

Slowly, the brooms, the mop, and even Nanaba’s laundry make sense. The cups were still a mystery. That is, until Levi takes the empty cup from Erwin’s desk, the one he always scolds Erwin for leaving there so long that the tea rings become impossible to scrub out, and drops it unceremoniously into a trash bin by the desk.

Erwin laughs and Levi stops in his tracks. Did he wake him?

In the dimness of his quarters, Erwin watches in awe as the ghost of the old headquarters pulls the oversized shirt over his head and takes it off in one fluid movement. Levi wears nothing but the moonlight as he peels the blanket off Erwin’s bed and tucks himself in.

* * *

Levi wakes up with a sharp pain on the side of his neck, his back twisted in an uncomfortable and unfamiliar dip in his bed. The sun warmed the left side of his face, his vision red and white behind his eyelids.

 _Wait_. The window is on the right side of his bed.

He sits up with a start and immediately reaches for the knife he keeps under his pillow. It’s not there. Erwin is though - blond head perched on a hand, smiling at him fondly. The Commander has not looked so refreshed in weeks. And Levi has not felt more naked.

He looks down and the blanket is barely covering him.

Erwin smirks, “Looks like you’re on cleaning duty, Captain.”


End file.
